Alright, in preparation for free to play I ended up leveling all 8 classes to lvl 15 (using a trial account), and thought I'd just go back an forth between characters depending on which story was more interesting at the moment. Unfortunately now it seems I can only have 2 characters. I have picked one on the rep side. Since I play this game mainly for the story, I'd like to know, without spoilers which imp class you guys think has the best story.

I chose the Bounty Hunter for my first Imp toon. Story is pretty good so far (it's all based on a 'Great Hunt' contest), he's easy to play, and I'm choosing 'mostly' light options and his responses can be pretty funny.

I really didn't like the "great hunt" thing as a main plot that much, but so far, the actual missions where mostly good fun.
Kinda similar with the warrior, I'm not that fond of being the errand boy for some crazy mystic (made less fun since it seems like I'll be hunting one jedi for the rest of the game), but the missions has been fun enough.
With both of those I'm worried that the missions wont be as fun, while I'm stuck with a main plot I dislike.

People tend to choose Agent for its originality, since it's not your typical Star Wars archetype and because it has an interesting story. I've been meaning to play the Agent but haven't, so I can't tell you if it's true. The Bounty Hunter is a fun class to play, but yeah, I think as far as story goes, I feel like both the Agent and the Inquisitor should be better. I only played the Inquisitor until 10, so not much I can tell you there as well...

I can't say which is best because I haven't even finished one, getting close with my agent and I will say it has been very good. Also can't say if it is better as a female or a male, lightside or darkside, or as a differt race, but I have found it is very good as a female, lightside Chiss. One of the few time I actually remember NPCs commenting on my race beyond calling a Twi'lek or Miraluka a alien or slave race. People actually comment about the agent being Chiss.

The Agent seems nice, but since my rep char is a smuggler, I figured I'd go for something different, however, if the agent story is far superior to the others, I'll go for it.
The inquisitor seems like it should be great too, except all the quests have been kinda meh until lvl 15 at least.
Annoyingly enough it seems like I can't buy more slots (unless I subscribe) which makes this decision far more "final" than I thought. Now I'll be stuck with whatever I pick until I'm done with the story (and once I'm done with the story deleting that char is going to be rather painful).

The agent is what I'm playing now, and it's great. Only on balmora though, so I'm not that far. I'm enjoying it much more than I did my bounty hunter, which I loved. I've heard agent is the best story, but I've also heard the inquisitor is too. Since you have a smuggler as your republic, I'd recommend inquisitor.

Seriously, the Sith Warrior story is awesome, the Agent story is interesting, but that's all it is, interesting. The Sith Warrior story is very personal to the Sith Warrior and you go through a very interesting journey that has your character really finding out where their allegiance is.

The Imperial Agent story is very personal to the Imperial Agent and you go through a very interesting journey that has your character really finding out where their allegiance is.

Especially if you play a light side Imperial Agent.

Fixed...You can say the exact same thing for the light side agent. I think you just like that other one better because you saw the story play out first there.

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Originally Posted by Lynk Former

Best class story ever.

This thread is about the empire, so quit bringing up the smuggler story, everyone knows it is the best class, best dps, best heals, best tank, best lines and best story. You don’t have to keep rubbing it in.

This isn't easy, guess I'll just summarize what I have gathered about each class, partly for myself and partly to make it easier for you guys to help.

Agent: everyone says good story, but until lvl 15 I have mainly been fighting small fires for the higher ups, and protecting an empire as ridiculous as it is evil isn't the best motivation.

Inquisitor: Again everyone says good/best story, but until lvl 15 I haven't seen much to support it, the quests where standard and usually didn't reveal new info. Also I'm not a big fan of magic super thingies, or magic doing anything a sufficiently pissed of elephant can't do, and it seems like the main plot is going to have me chasing magic things to do something rather grand. Oh,

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and my master will back stab me, thanks heavy handed foreshadowing.

That said, it has potential, since it seems like it's the inquisitors that run the show in the empire, so maybe the plot will make me feel a little more in control than most of the others eventually.

Warrior: So far I have liked the missions (Grathan especially), and while the main plot seems a bit meh (stopping a jedi), I have really enjoyed the fact that my class missions have shown something new (like learning who was behind the slave rebellion. I'm a bit concerned that I'll just end up flying around the galaxy as muscle for the siths, without ever feeling like I affect much or decide much, especially if the missions become more standard and bland.

Bounty hunter: Main plot is rather uninteresting, however, like the sith warrior, I have really enjoyed most of the missions so far. While they don't reveal anything new like the warrior, they have been some of the better ones. Again, like the warrior I'm worried that the quests will become more bland, and since the main plot is probably the worst of the bunch, I'm not really sure.

@Mim: I tried to use my smuggler as a tank today (to get the rakghoul disease, which I wasn't able to get, wasn't the disease supposed to be terribly contagious?). It was, eh, interesting. Made me wish that the shotgun could be used a lot more frequently.

Don't underestimate the Warrior missions, what you've experience so far is only the premise, you haven't gotten to the truth yet. Trust me, your fears are unfounded, things get very interesting in the warrior story...

It may not be the "i'm the super hero/villian of the galaxy and if I sneeze it'll affect the entire war" type scenario, but it's extremely interesting on a more personal level.

Seems like it's between Inquisitor and Warrior. Where Inquisitor seems like it should be the better story while Warrior having the best story at least until lvl 15. I'm not in a rush to choose yet, still happy enough with my smuggler, though being a healer is far from ideal in PvE.

@:Lynk: I don't really need to affect the entire galaxy, however, I haven't enjoyed Bioware's attempts at making a more personal story in the past, which is why I'm a bit hesitant. That said, I'm getting more and more convinced I'll go for warrior.

The Agent seems nice, but since my rep char is a smuggler, I figured I'd go for something different, however, if the agent story is far superior to the others, I'll go for it.
The inquisitor seems like it should be great too, except all the quests have been kinda meh until lvl 15 at least.
Annoyingly enough it seems like I can't buy more slots (unless I subscribe) which makes this decision far more "final" than I thought. Now I'll be stuck with whatever I pick until I'm done with the story (and once I'm done with the story deleting that char is going to be rather painful).

Without having played but having a friend who got to beta test...I would personally say Bounty Hunter because it is somewhat open-ended as you don't *have to* be a mandalorian. Also as far as I can tell you can just get right on in on the play action. This partially confirmed by multiple friends of mine.

Understand that to my main friend IRL, all force adept classes are cliche in his view anyway, basically for the same reason you listed in your OP. My other RL friends aren't all big SW fans, they're just here for the sake of playing it. Still, he liked inquisitor and consular better, whereas most people here say their stories were okay but not as exciting as their melee oriented counterparts.

Opinions, opinions. Everyone has them.

We'll murder them all, amid laughter and merriment...except for the few we take home to experiment!

I'm curious mur'phon, what class is your Rep? You said your Rep character is set in stone, but you didn't say which class. That might help cover any redundancies in role. You implied Smuggler, but I wasn't for sure. Actually, your rakghoul infection line probably means it is Smuggler.

Everyone loves the Agent story, and I have an Agent, so I'm going to give a majorly biased vouch for the Agent. Since it's not bound by a movie archetype, it has a lot more freedom in its storytelling, and it has something like 4 different ends to the entire story, influenced by decisions going back to your 30s.

Plus the Agent has one of the craziest band of freaks for companions. No other class can beat the Agent for weird companions. Every class has at least one weird companion, but the Agent has 4(arguably 5) weird companions.

"Sir,we are beginning our search for these rumored 'underwater villages'.They will not stay hidden for long". -Battle Droid Commander OOM-9!

Agent: everyone says good story, but until lvl 15 I have mainly been fighting small fires for the higher ups, and protecting an empire as ridiculous as it is evil isn't the best motivation.

Also, I want to spot on that. As someone who doesn't care for the "Forcies"(my only 2 characters are Trooper and Agent, no desire to play Jedi/Sith), I loved how from the very start, particularly once you got to Dromund Kaas, you were feeling pretty annoyed and resentful of the Sith.

Nal Hutta Agent story spoilers:

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Like from the very start there, your mission is jeopardized because on some distant planet some random evil Sith killed the kids of one of the guys you're manipulating on behalf of the Empire. Some typical "killing is awesome!" Sith guys. And you have to change your entire angle on getting the Hutts to join the Empire, planting evidence to suggest a rival Hutt is attacking Nem'ro on behalf of the Republic. All that work because of some generically evil Sith killing random people on the other side of the galaxy.

And on Dromund Kaas, Imperial Intelligence, as per their location codex entry and some of the initial conversations when you get to Intelligence HQ on DK, spends half their time cleaning up after meddlesome Sith who attack first and never ask questions. It's this sense of resentment from having to clean up after the Sith where you get a real sense that the Sith are the worst part of the Empire, keeping it from being truly civilized. As a Light Agent, I love that feeling of sticking up for the little guys who make the Imperial civilization tick but get pushed down and bullied because they can't shoot lightning and don't have red glowsticks.

At times I get the feeling that the Empire could ally with the Republic if it weren't for the angry religious zealots at the top, including the Emperor himself. There's a few things I feel I could say to back up that feeling, but I'm not going to delve into late game Agent spoilers, nor just the general shape of the galaxy after everyone's class stories, so I'll leave it at that.

Long story short is that I don't like the Sith, and the Agent story satisfies that sentiment I feel, with the added bonus of feeling heroic when I stand up for the oppressed Imperial civilians who are being crushed beneath the foot of their malevolent theocratic ruling class.

"Sir,we are beginning our search for these rumored 'underwater villages'.They will not stay hidden for long". -Battle Droid Commander OOM-9!

My rep class is a Scoundrel, and while the story took a nosedive after lvl 15, I really enjoy playing as a stealthy healer.

I'm no longer as certain that I will play a tank class (SI, BH, SW), because while I seem to be able to handle healing well enough, my occasional minor screw ups aren't as devastating as when a tank screw up (that, and I have no idea if I'll be any good at playing tank).

Also, I'm not sure I'll enjoy a non stealth class (BH, SW). It's really nice being able to flee from combat and then resurrecting the group, or to simply skip areas that aren't part of any quest.

That said, the only class I have decided almost for certain not to play is the BH. The main story simply doesn't interest me enough.

As for the agent, while I enjoyed the whole "we are the bureaucrats who has to clean up after the politicians" angle, the main missions so far are basically go there kill/coerce that. Why? Because it's for the good of the empire, an empire which I don't find all that believable. Basically, I like the "looking at SW" from a new angle, but I find it hard to see why my char would actually do the missions at all.

Anyways, still hoping that they'll eventually let me have more than 2 chars on a F2P account, but for now, I enjoy my smuggler well enough.

When I played as a Sith Marauder (using Carnage spec), I ran from no one... okay I ran from a couple of fights, but the best way I knew of to deal with them was to simply give a full-on attack with myself and Vette. Why? Because it took less time to kill the mob than it does to run away... like I'm talking literally a couple of seconds here as both Vette and I killinate the entire mob with such ease.

There's very little you can do to screw up unless you agro multiple mobs and even then you still have a chance if you kill them fast enough before they kill you. Plus it's quite a rush when it does happen anyway since the majority of the time when it happened to me... I survived. Vette didn't, but I did and I'd have to dismiss and call her back quite a few times lol.

The point is... everything falls before you in an instant, and that is good.

Also, ease of tanking depends on the class you choose. I haven't done tanking with the Guardian/Juggernaught or Shadow/Assassin, but most people tend to agree that Vanguard/Powertech tanks are the easiest to pick up... at least I found it particularly easy to pick up and not long ago I was totally new to MMOs and chose the Vanguard in tank spec as my main. Vanguards/Powertechs tend to have a lot of mobility which is probably why a lot of people find them easier to use, though compared to the other types of tanks, they're not considered the best, just the easiest to pick up.

I am one of the biggest advocates for stealth and CC’s. Loved them leveling my Sawbones and Shadow, absolutely loathed leveling my trooper anytime I had to solo an area (the reason she is stuck on Belsavis at level 41). However, on my Sentinel after buying the faster quick travel, I do not mind the lack of stealth and CC’s. I run around them and if I happen to pull something, I just kill it. Only down side is I am always overleveled.

I loved the agent story, but I found the ending kind of meh. Still really glad I played it first.

528) ... and you make her do it half naked, in undies only. o.O ... and you extend this to your female boss
583 - Your female boss agrees
530) Your boss thinks you nuts for trying to wield a lightsaber

My rep class is a Scoundrel, and while the story took a nosedive after lvl 15, I really enjoy playing as a stealthy healer.

I'm no longer as certain that I will play a tank class (SI, BH, SW), because while I seem to be able to handle healing well enough, my occasional minor screw ups aren't as devastating as when a tank screw up (that, and I have no idea if I'll be any good at playing tank).

8 slots, 2 sides * 4 classes. Only other factors being species and gender. IFF you elect for the full thing of course.

From my understanding, tanking can be hard especially if you aren't ranged.
Common sense can avoid most hiccups, only those once in a while freak incidents will get past you. Don't know about any of those unfortunately.

The only screwups I think you'd have to worry about are either failing to protect your more vulnerable teammates, or you yourself biting off more than you can chew.

Unless they made the game with some unbalanced catty-wompus parts that are completely anti-intuitive, you can pretty much avoid any hairy situations in the latter case by heeding all advisories (display tagged with a likelihood of surviving an encounter with/successfully beating an enemy).
As to the former, failing in protection can happen if you're not really paying attention, your character is under-leveled, or you've sorely underestimated your enemy.

If you're not sure about tanking, I suggest Sith Assassin, as they are well rounded on top of being able to tank. I think either PC gamer or one of those similar magazines published a story on it, saying how shocked they were at how simple it was to play sith assassin. And being a story involved with the "higher mysteries" of the force, it sounds like you have a bit of play room w.r.t. light side vs dark side.
Most people I know who have played it said it was tons of fun too. Not sure how it measures up to other tanking classes, though.

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Also, I'm not sure I'll enjoy a non stealth class (BH, SW). It's really nice being able to flee from combat and then resurrecting the group, or to simply skip areas that aren't part of any quest.

That said, the only class I have decided almost for certain not to play is the BH. The main story simply doesn't interest me enough.

To each his own. Though you never know, you might be pleasantly surprised.

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As for the agent, while I enjoyed the whole "we are the bureaucrats who has to clean up after the politicians" angle, the main missions so far are basically go there kill/coerce that. Why? Because it's for the good of the empire, an empire which I don't find all that believable. Basically, I like the "looking at SW" from a new angle, but I find it hard to see why my char would actually do the missions at all.

It probably is mundane in the early goings until you reach later levels. Intrigues, precarious situations, conspiring, covert wars with info and intelligence you gather.

We'll murder them all, amid laughter and merriment...except for the few we take home to experiment!

@ GTA: There are no ranged tanks in this game. The Vanguard/Powertech are still melee ranged tanks but with some extra mobility over the Guardian/Juggernaught and Shadow/Assassin, that's it. In terms of their tanking skills, Vanguard/Powertechs are easy to pick up and play and that's really their biggest advantage. Shadow/Assassin tanks are considered to be the best in the game but are harder to master.

@ DA: There are no ranged tanks in this game. The Vanguard/Powertech are still melee ranged tanks but with some extra mobility over the Guardian/Juggernaught and Shadow/Assassin, that's it.

With the one move, the "gut", but I'd hardly classify a single move melee unless there's some other moves. Are there? Like tackle, or kick?

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In terms of their tanking skills, Vanguard/Powertechs are easy to pick up and play and that's really their biggest advantage. Shadow/Assassin tanks are considered to be the best in the game but are harder to master.

Are assassins able to choose either healing or offense with powers btw?

We'll murder them all, amid laughter and merriment...except for the few we take home to experiment!

With the one move, the "gut", but I'd hardly classify a single move melee unless there's some other moves. Are there? Like tackle, or kick?

Aside from hammershot, high impact bolt, sticky grenade and full auto which are 30m attacks, the rest of the Vanguard moves are 10m and under. This makes them a melee class with extra mobility but still a melee class. Vanguard Tanks spend most of their time in around the 10m to 4m range mark of whatever they're ranking... I should know, I've been a Vanguard Tank since the beginning and have run a lot of endgame content with our guild. Also gut is part of the tactics tree which is a melee dot based tree.

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Are assassins able to choose either healing or offense with powers btw?

@Lynk: well, my Warrior is a Juggernaut (I despise playing as dps, I never know if I do my job right) so I won't just blitz everything. Anyways, the reason I love stealth is partly because it prevents me from overleveling and partly because during heroics with other f2p players, escape artist can be a real time saver.
Seeing as I really didn't like the BH story and don't really see it improving, It's out of the picture for now.

@:GTA Having been the victim of quite a few tanking screw ups (to the point that I religiously add any half decent tank I find to friends), I know just how little it takes to destroy a group, while if I make a tiny screw up as a healer, most people pop a health pack and we are fine.
As for the assassin, the part I find interesting is their involvement with the running of the empire (I do political science, sue me). Magic, black and white morality and "badassery" are things I try to avoid if I can.

Having been the victim of quite a few tanking screw ups (to the point that I religiously add any half decent tank I find to friends), I know just how little it takes to destroy a group, while if I make a tiny screw up as a healer, most people pop a health pack and we are fine.

Oh, I get it. Risk of losses for difficulty encountered is simply not worth it to you. Yeah, you pretty much have to be of the mind and personality for it.

As a side note, we're polar opposites on many things I notice. Peculiar way the world has of balancing things out.

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As for the assassin, the part I find interesting is their involvement with the running of the empire (I do political science, sue me).

Inquisitors are the same regardless of the progression tree you choose, I'm pretty sure.

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Magic, black and white morality and "badassery" are things I try to avoid if I can.

So intrigue and money are where it's at for you then? (can't think of much else)

We'll murder them all, amid laughter and merriment...except for the few we take home to experiment!

I'll be honest, I haven't quite read this entire thread, but I was responding to the original post. xP

I must say that I enjoy all four classes, but out of them, I enjoyed a LS Agent... and I will NOT hesitate to go through the story again as a male IF they allow SGRAs and Vector is the Agent SGR companion. I find it incredibly awkward going through as a female anything... (even though, I'm gay and it'd probably work out better for me romance wise. Until then I'm good romancing a DS Jaesa on my Chiss Warrior <3 She may be a girl, but she's awesome... I'd totally date her if she were real... and I was the Sith Warrior in reality. xP)